


My heart knew who it belonged to [long before I met him]

by memoriesofrain



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types
Genre: Alec Lightwood Deserves Nice Things, Alec is a romantic, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Domestic Fluff, Domestic Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, Flirting, Fluff, Happy Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, Love, Love at First Sight, M/M, Magnus Bane Deserves Nice Things, POV Alec Lightwood, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Sweet, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-25
Updated: 2019-11-25
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:40:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21563914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/memoriesofrain/pseuds/memoriesofrain
Summary: If a Shadowhunter has a soulmate, they get their soulmark when they turn eighteen. Alec had been dreaming of having one since he'd first found out about them.And his soulmate was everything he could've wanted.
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Comments: 16
Kudos: 240
Collections: The Malec Secret Santa - Edition 2019





	My heart knew who it belonged to [long before I met him]

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PetitPentagram](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PetitPentagram/gifts).



> This lovely gift is for the wonderful PetitPentagram! I hope you have a wonderful holiday season and I cannot express how wonderful it was to write soulmate fluff for these two <3 
> 
> And because I got a bit overzealous while writing this, it also comes with a fanmix!  
> [Malec Secret Santa Fanmix ](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7G23CvGuv7CS9oOL8dqZAB)

According to the records in the recesses of the New York Institute, the first documentation of a Shadowhunter with a soulmark was Jonathan Shadowhunter. The drawing of the mark was old and looked as if it’d been written on a scrap piece of paper, the name barely legible anymore, but Alec paid no mind to the age or legibility of the soulmark. The fact that there was proof of its existence, an unquestionable account of the phenomenon gave him hope.

Soulmates were a blessing from the angels, the markings on their skin just as revered as the runes they put on their bodies. If a Shadowhunter was lucky enough to have a soulmate, the mark would show up on a Nephilim’s eighteenth birthday and was celebrated with gusto. Family gatherings and sacred rituals where the Shadowhunter who’d been blessed had to swear an oath to uphold and cherish the soulmate that Raziel blessed them with.

And Alec prayed every night to be blessed with a soulmate. To have someone who was destined for him, who’d love him with their whole being. If he happened to pray harder for it _not_ to be a girl, that would remain his secret, especially from his parents.

Growing up, Alec spent all his time training, trying to live up to his parents’ expectations. He’d push aside his own well-being, his own happiness, in hopes of getting a shred of pride from one of them. No matter how many times he’d tried and failed to reach their impossible standards, Alec refused to give up on earning their approval. And that meant squirreling away his sexuality like it was some heinous decision he had made.

No one wishes for life to be harder than it already is.

But soulmates could be the same gender, it was ridiculous to think that only men and women could be soulmates. Even the Clave wasn’t that blind, but for same sex soulmates, they were highly discouraged, if not forced, to keep their bond purely platonic. But Alec had still seen how his fellow Shadowhunters felt about those pairings. Like they were less, a bond Raziel had given them as an afterthought and not with all the care the typical soulmark was given.

So as hard as Alec prayed for his soulmate to be a man, he knew he couldn’t have it all. But that was enough for him. It had to be.

On the cusp of his eighteenth birthday, he anxiously awaited to see if he would get a soulmark. He knew he should’ve been asleep, birthday or not he had to be up bright and early to send out the next squads on patrol. It wouldn’t do him any favors to be exhausted. But he just couldn’t fall asleep, not when he was so close to possibly getting what he wanted.

He lazily traced his parabatai rune and hoped his anxiousness wasn’t being sent through his and Jace’s bond. At one point in time, Jace not being his soulmate would’ve devastated him, but his past crush had faded back to brotherly affection after they’d become parabatai and he was beyond thankful that it did. He felt enough shame for liking men, he didn’t need to add that into the mix.

He was broken from his musings by a knock on his door before Izzy stepped in with a bright smile. She knew how much Alec had been waiting for this day. “How you holding up, Big Bro?” Izzy asked, sitting on his bed.

Alec sat up and shrugged. “Just waiting,” Alec said.

His sister rolled her eyes and shoved his shoulder. “I could feel your anticipation from my room.”

“Wouldn’t you be?”

“Oh no doubt,” Izzy gave him a soft look, “But I know how much this means to you.”

He flushed and broke away from her gaze to stare at the clock. He had a minute left. “Do you think I’ll get one?” Alec asked, his voice so quiet he wondered if Izzy had even heard him. But he knew she had when he felt her arm snake around his shoulders.

“Alec, if ever there was someone who deserves a soulmark, it’d be you.” She said it so confidently, like Alec _not_ getting a soulmark was unfathomable.

He went to respond in kind to Izzy, to tell her that she’d get one too, when he felt a heat blossom in his chest that stole the air from his lungs. The heat quickly traveled down his arms, not unlike a caress and Alec could do nothing but stare in amazement as his soulmark pigmented his arms. He might have heard Izzy gasp beside him but he was too focused on what he was seeing.

His soulmark was unlike any he’d ever seen before. It wasn’t a name and it wasn’t a design, but more of a swatch of blues that seemed to glitter against his arms. The blue lazily flowed around his runes and shifted along his skin as if it were alive.

And Alec loved it. He loved how warm the marks were, how they sent affection flickering down to his fingertips. How the blue caressed his skin with all the familiarity of eternity, like it couldn’t help but explore his skin with avid attention.

“Beautiful,” Alec muttered, tracing the mark with his fingers. Izzy broke his wonderment with a swipe of her thumb underneath his eye. He hadn’t even noticed he’d started crying. “Izzy, I have a soulmate.”

Izzy’s eyes were glistening with unshed tears, but her bright smile could’ve lit up the room. “You have a soulmate,” she repeated, turning her attention back to the marks on his arm. “I’ve never seen a soulmark like this.”

Perhaps Alec should’ve felt cheated that he didn’t have a name to go off of, but he honestly loved the swirls of blue that now decorated his skin. “Neither have I.” But that didn’t matter. Not when he knew for sure he had a soulmate, waiting for him to find and love with the ferocity of his entire being.

Even though he’d received his soulmark, it wasn’t as if Alec could just take as much time as he’d like to try and find them. And while he adored his mark, it did make finding his soulmate a much more daunting task since he didn’t have a name to go off of or a mark to match to someone else’s. But he never let himself lose hope, not about this.

Alec’s twenty-third birthday rolled around with still no leads on his soulmate. Maybe if he was anyone else, he’d feel hopeless at this point, but he was stubborn. He gave no room for his parents to even suggest him settling down with some girl. He had someone. Someone waiting for him just as he was waiting for them.

Somewhere.

And then this tiny, fiery haired mundane comes barreling into his life and he was suddenly captured in her whirlwind drama via Jace’s insistence. He admits to himself that he could stand to be a little kinder to the girl who fell into the Shadow World with all the finesse of a duckling, but suddenly the little spare time he had was going to her and her problems instead of his searches for his soulmate.

He tried to tell himself to calm down, to offer the help Jace expected him to give, but it was hard to tell himself that when his heart yearned for its soulmate. It was literally the one thing he truly wanted for himself and it seemed to be put on the back burner for this girl.

Until that one momentous meeting.

Back at _Pandemonium_ once more, now with the necklace they were going to offer to the High Warlock of Brooklyn, Magnus Bane as incentive to return Clary’s memories. He left the transaction for the others to handle, instead checking the parameter for any suspicious activity.

Well, he would have been more attentive in his search if his soulmark didn’t start pulsing and wriggling on his arms. Sure the mark liked to dance across his skin, but it’d never done this before. It seemed to be responding to something. Or someone, Alec thought with wide eyes. He darted his eyes around the hordes of people dancing as if thinking his soulmate might spontaneously appear from the crowd.

Instead of his soulmate, he spotted a few suspicious characters weaving their way through the crowds. He edged after them, taking in all the details he could from where he was until he spotted a rune on both of the men’s throats.

The Circle had infiltrated the club.

He quickly notched an arrow and let it fly as he quickly headed back to where he’d left Jace, Izzy, and Clary. All around him chaos erupted, Downworlders fleeing the club as fast as they could, whether that was by portal or just supernatural speed. Alec did his best to keep his eyes peeled for any more of Valentine’s Shadowhunters. He’d put away his bow and switched to his seraph blade to allow for more maneuverability as he started making his way through the throngs of panicked clubbers.

With each step closer to his destination he felt the pulsing of his mark increase until it suddenly stopped just in time to see a portal close not far from the rest of his group. He stopped in his tracks. His soulmate… was a warlock? Or at least he could assume they were given the portal. He’d never even considered the thought of his soulmate being a Downworlder, but was that bad?

He didn’t have time to think on the subject, instead gathering everyone up and herding them as quickly as he could to the nearest exit. “Come on, we need to get out of here,” he said over the panicking crowds of people who were still fleeing from the scene as fast as they could.

“But my memories.” Clary insisted.

Alec frowned and looked at the group. “You didn’t get her memories back?” He asked.

Jace rolled his eyes. “Kinda hard to do that when our meeting with Bane was interrupted before we could really get started,” Jace said with a shrug.

“Well if you didn’t get to finish your deal, where’s the necklace?”

Izzy winced and gave him a sheepish smile. “Magnus wanted to see the necklace to prove it was the real deal,” Izzy said.

He groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. “So we not only didn’t get Clary’s memories back, but we also lost our only bargaining chip.”

“Hey, we can still talk to the guy,” Jace retorted, crossing his arms. “I doubt Magnus is going to just call our deal null before we get a chance to settle something.”

“And how do you plan to find him? He fled with the other warlocks.” And my soulmate, Alec wanted to say but held himself back. It wasn’t the right time to bring it up, especially if he was just getting his hopes up.

Jace shot him a mischievous grin and held up a button. “Lucky for us we can track him.” He motioned his hand over at Alec. “Come on, we’re going to have to use parabatai tracking to find him.”

Alec rolled his eyes but walked over and held his hand out for Jace to draw the rune before they clasped hands. He closed his eyes and concentrated on searching for Magnus’ location.

Near instantly, he felt the same tingling from his soulmark as before and felt almost giddy that tracking Magnus seemed to be what he needed to do to find his soulmate. All too soon Jace pulled away and the feeling vanished once more.

But he knew that he was going to have another chance to meet his soulmate. Whoever they were.

Fighting off the Circle members that had invaded the warehouse went about the same as any mission. Alec focused on saving anyone he could, firing arrow after arrow to take them down as he moved further into the building. And if he happened to be following the way his soulmark was trying to draw him, he didn’t have to admit that to anyone. Nothing was going to prevent him from finding his soulmate, not this time.

As he climbed up the stairs he came across a single man firing spells at the Circle members around him. It was magical to see a warlock in action, especially since he hadn’t seen many of the others he’d come across fighting. The man was almost unearthly in his grace and his magic just seemed to be an extension of his body. Which he supposed it was for warlocks.

He was almost so enraptured that he didn’t notice the Circle member coming up from the warlock’s blind spot, but he quickly fired an arrow to take care of the man at the same time the warlock took down the last of his opponents.

The warlock turned around to face him and Alec felt his breath hitch. He had always wondered what it’d be like to finally meet his soulmate, what the moment would feel like when they’d meet eyes, but all those wondering thoughts paled in comparison. As his eyes met the other man’s he felt like his world disappeared and his heart was caught in a mini supernova of longing and love. He felt warm and light like he’d sprouted the wings of his angelic heritage that had given him his marks.

And his marks, oh his marks. The tingling had settled into a pleasant buzz against his skin. He chanced a glance down at them and couldn’t fight the delighted smile that settled on his face when he saw that the blue swirls were making themselves into hearts before returning to their nonsensical pattern.

He turned his attention back to the warlock in front of him, the smile still firmly on his face. He recognized the face from the photos he’d seen earlier, but those pictures couldn’t do justice to the beauty that was Magnus Bane.

“Who are _you_?” Magnus asked, with a flirtatious air.

Alec felt his words flee at being addressed by his _soulmate_. His soulmate… He never thought he would get to find them. He must have been staring for too long because Magnus walked over to him. Maybe it should have been nerve racking to be so close to your soulmate, but all Alec felt was bliss as Magnus drew closer and closer.

He needed to say something, anything. “You’re beautiful,” Alec said softly. He hadn’t meant to say that, he’d meant to introduce himself like a normal person.

Magnus seemed to preen at the comment though, so Alec counted it as a win. “Well, aren’t you a charmer,” Magnus said with a smile of his own.

“I’m A-Alec.”

“Short for Alexander, I presume.”

Alec nodded his head. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do. Did Magnus know Alec was his soulmate? Was their bond just one-way? Would Magnus even care if Alec was his soulmate? All these questions kept running through his mind and he couldn’t concentrate. He didn’t know what to do. So he did the first thing that came to mind: he held out his hand.

Magnus stared at Alec’s hand with detached interest before clasping their hands together. Their hands fit perfectly together and they both watched in awe as Alec’s soulmark started to glow. Magnus Bane really was his soulmate.

Magnus let go of Alec’s hand and stared as his magic seemed to cling to the glowing marks. He let out a breathless little ‘oh,’ and looked back at Alec.

Neither said a word, as if believing if they tried to talk they’d break this wondrous moment. But Alec couldn’t stop himself for long. 

“I’ve waited for you my whole life,” He said, smiling at the other man. “From the very moment I found out about soulmates I’ve been waiting to meet you.” Feeling daring, he reached his hand out to cup Magnus’s cheek, rubbing his thumb lightly over a highlighted cheekbone. “You’re just as perfect as I imagined.” He shook his head, “No even more than I imagined.”

Magnus eyes looked glassy and he blinked his eyes to try and prevent the tears from falling. “I never dreamed I would get a soulmate,” he whispered. “Warlocks don’t get marks or anything of the sort telling us we have a soulmate, it’s just a feeling or a pull from our magic. Most don’t even dare to dream that even _that_ is true.”

Magnus brought his own hand up to cup Alec’s neck and Alec leant into the touch. “We live long lives and thinking about missing our soulmates or losing them to time… I never bothered to look.”

Alec’s heart ached at the admission but he didn’t hold it against Magnus. “Good thing I bothered to look for the both of us.”

Magnus gave a watery chuckle. “A very good thing indeed.”

“And… are you disappointed?”

The warlock furrowed his brows and gave Alec a quick once over. “Surprised, that you’re a Shadowhunter, but disappointed?” Magnus smiled at him. “I don’t think anyone in their right mind would be disappointed to have you, Alexander.”

He knew that they couldn’t stay in their own little world for much longer but Alec felt like he could stay in this moment happily for the rest of his life. He knew they were going to have to talk about a lot of things and their relationship probably wouldn’t be smooth sailing, but Raziel if Alec thought it would all be worth it. Because Magnus Bane, High Warlock of Brooklyn, was his soulmate.

And Magnus would always be worth it.

* * *

Alec walked into their apartment with a happy smile as he took in the sight in-front of him. Little Max was creating little bubbles out of thin air while Magnus praised his use of magic. Their little blueberry was getting better with his magic every day.

Magnus turned his attention away from Max when he heard Alec set his bow down beside the door. “Look blueberry, Daddy’s home!” Magnus said, swooping their son up into his arms and making his way over to Alec.

The swirls of blue on Alec’s arms glowed softly before turning back to their glittery glory as Alec wrapped them both in his arms. “I’m home,” Alec sighed with a pleased hum. He reluctantly pulled away but it seemed Max had other ideas as he refused to let go of Alec’s shirt. “Hi Max, has Papa been teaching you more magic?”

Max giggled, nodding his head and babbling at him. He had learned a few words, but he wouldn’t start making clear sentences for a little while longer.

Alec grinned and looked at Magnus with a soft look. His husband was beautiful as ever, his tailored trousers following the long line of his legs and the plunging neckline of his shirt leaving little to the imagination. The assortment of necklaces had been exchanged for a thick cord of leather that sat a little below his collarbones and held the arrowhead Alec had given Magnus all those years ago.

“Rafe’s not with you?” Magnus asked, adjusting his hold on Max.

Alec shook his head. “He wanted to hang out with his Uncle Jace for a while, but he’ll be home in an hour or two.”

Magnus sighed, throwing his head back. “Oh Alexander, whatever shall we do? One of our son’s already doesn’t want to hang out with us.”

He snorted and bumped Magnus playfully. “Nah, he still loves us just as much as he always has.” He leaned over and pressed his lips against Magnus’s, relishing in the buzz of perfection that radiated through him. He ended their chaste kiss to lean his forehead against Magnus’s. “I love you,” he whispered.

Magnus smiled that wonderful smile that made the corners of his eyes wrinkle ever so slightly. “I love you too.”

Alec would’ve gone in for another kiss if Max hadn’t gotten impatient and started making bubbles appear between them. Alec stared wide-eyed at Magnus through the gathering of bubbles and couldn’t help but burst into laughter. Magnus was quick to join him, his head thrown back joyously.

He leaned down to Max and started planting kisses all over his son’s face. Max clapped his hands happily giving Alec his own version of a kiss on his cheek.

He never thought that having a soulmate would lead to this life he had, but he was right.

Loving Magnus Lightwood-Bane would always be worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! If you have time, I'd really appreciate it if you'd leave a comment telling me what you thought of this.


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